The present invention relates in general to meters and is concerned, more particularly, with a digital panel meter that is primarily adapted as a replacement meter for a standard analog panel meter. The meter of this invention is primarily adapted for replacement of the standard 41/2 inch analog meter presently in use.
There are certain disadvantages associated with analog panel meters. For example, with analog meters there is a problem of the sticking of the pointer. Furthermore, analog panel meters have parallax problems and have reading errors. Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to eliminate these prior problems that are common to analog panel meters by providing a digital panel meter that can be at least 6 times as accurate as the analog meter and that can be easily read with little or no ambiguity in the reading.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved digital panel meter that has universal range adjustment and accepts both DC and AC input signals.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a digital panel meter than is very easy to install and calibrate even by a non-technical person.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a meter having improved accuracy of, for example, 0.5% of the full scale .+-. one digit.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a digital panel meter that is relatively compact and that provides for the easy change from one range of operation to another.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a digital panel meter that has a range scale adjustment and that also has the capability of use of the decimal point.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a digital panel meter that may be used in many different process applications including applications for reading in revolutions per minute, feet per minute, meters per minute, strokes per minute, bags per minute, pounds, gallons, amperes (DC or AC), volts (DC or AC) and percent load.